This Week's Top Lessons About Pitching

Coach Sarah and I are, right at this moment, attending the The National Fastpitch Coaches’ Association Conference! Even though it’s not in Dallas as it was originally supposed to be, we are lucky to get to learn virtually from the comfort of our homes.

Top coaches in the game like Carol Hutches (Michigan) and Mike Candrea (Arizona) spill their guts with all of their best kept secrets. Well, not quite. But we are still learning a ton!

Here are the top 8 lessons we’ve found the most helpful so far. We think they will help you, too!

1.Coach Hutchins, Michigan Head Coach
She spoke about her conversation with another top-level NCAA coach. She said (and this is before she ever one her National Championship), “ ‘So you mean to tell me if you never win the National Championship you will never feel successful?’ He said firmly, ‘No, absolutely not.’ ‘And I thought, wow, I hope my success isn’t based on that or that would be awful. It’s about the relationships we have.’ ”

2. Suzy McNulty, M.D., Mia Bella Pediatrics
2 in 5 young people identify themselves as a perfectionist. They believe “The better I do the better I’m expected to do.” The solution? Build their resiliency muscles. Reset your players’ expectations to train for a personal best, not one compared to others. Also focus on effort rather than outcome, thinking about training for excellence. Excellence can be a great attitude, mentally “showing up” to practice, or being on time. It can mean having an excellent at-bat as opposed to getting a hit.

3. Dan McDonnell, Head Baseball Coach, Louisville BSB
If your players need more motivation remember this quote from Silence of the Lambs (yes, he used a Silence of the Lambs reference) “We covet what we see everyday.” Going on that mindset, he wanted to get his players to think bigger. He posted pictures of baseball players in championship dog piles around the locker room, busses, and dugout.

4. High School & Travel Ball Caucus
In one caucus, college coaches answered questions from travel and high school coaches. College coaches all use recruiting services but to varying degrees. One gives those “stat emails” about an 8-second look, watching for something extraordinary. Another only communicates with the reps if she knows and trusts them personally. If pitchers are looking to get recruited, be sure they make their correspondence with the colleges personal. Show that she knows about the school and how she likes a certain unique aspect of their team.

5. High School & Travel Ball Caucus
In the same caucus, the coaches talked about tournament etiquette. If your daughter is playing at an exposure tournament and you want to introduce yourself to the coach, go ahead. But please don’t do it when she is watching a game on another field. It is distracting. Also, once you introduce yourself it’s okay to leave. They are there to work and watch games. It’s hard to turn their head and talk to you while they are trying to watch your daughter play!

6. Mike White, Head Coach, (Texas) and his daughter Nyree White, Brick Wall Softball
First, notice the father-daughter coaching combo here. You know Practice Pro loves that! They talked to us about the building blocks of pitching “The New Zealand Way.” Spoiler alert: there is no New Zealand way. It’s just plain old good mechanics. Good news though, we think the same way! One thing they talked about was the athleticism of the stride. Sometimes we ask young players to leap or glide off the mound while pitching, but they haven't yet developed the ability to do so isolating their legs. First, pitchers should try to jump from her right leg to her left leg as far as she can, while landing balanced, without her arms. Once she can do that, she's ready to put it into her pitch.

7. Mike White, Head Coach, (Texas) and his daughter Nyree White, Brick Wall Softball
Another thing the duo emphasized was the term “effortless pitching.” Ever notice the first pitch during walk-ins is the fastest? It’s because she isn’t even trying, it’s effortless. They attribute this to sequencing. At what point in the motion do each of your body parts move? The best indicator of speed is hand speed, determined by arm whip. They focus on the arm being like a wet noodle when it comes through the release zone. Love it!

8. Mike White, Head Coach, (Texas) and his daughter Nyree White, Brick Wall Softball
Mike and Nyree also teach their pitchers to practice movement pitches into the wind. They will move much more because the magnus effect is magnified. No pun intended. Want to see if pitchers are on the right track with the spin? Pitch into the wind and both her mistakes and her successes will be apparent.

We are still collecting more information at this totally awesome conference. We’ll be bringing it all back to you shortly so you can become the best pitcher-version of yourself.